Fastball

Tampa Bay Rays Rookie Joins Exclusive Club in Franchise Record Books

Osleivis Basabe hit a grand slam for his major league home run on Tuesday night as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Colorado Rockies.
Brady Farkas|
Tampa Bay Rays Rookie Joins Exclusive Club in Franchise Record Books
Tampa Bay Rays Rookie Joins Exclusive Club in Franchise Record Books

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Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays throttled the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night by a score of 12-4. The Rays utilized a nine-run eighth inning in the victory, which moved them to 76-51 on the season.

They currently own the top wild card spot in the American League and are 2.0 games back in the American League East race.

Rookie Osleivis Basabe provided some fireworks, connecting on a grand slam, which happened to be the first home of his major league career.

The feat also joined a rare group in team history, per Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

Rays with grand slam for 1st career HR: 

Today Osleivis Basabe 

6/22/13 Wil Myers 

9/25/07 Jorge Velandia

Basabe is getting a lot of time at shortstop in the wake of Wander Franco's absence. Franco has been placed on administrative leave as an investigation continues to his alleged inappropriate relationships with minors.

Basabe is the No. 6 prospect in the Rays organization, per the rankings from MLB.com.

Here's a portion of his prospect ranking:

After a couple solid seasons in the low Minors, Basabe took another step forward while splitting the 2022 season between High-A Bowling Green and Double-A Montgomery. The speedy, right-handed-hitting infielder batted .324/.385/.462 while striking out only 59 times in 495 plate appearances over 112 games. He continues to display elite contact skills, finding ways to put the ball in play and get on base, as his .316 career batting average would indicate

The Rays will take on the Rockies again on Wednesday night. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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